1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to railroad cars, and more particularly, to articulated rail cars for transporting wheeled vehicular trailers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Because of the congestion of highways, and the increased expense of transporting goods over long distances by truck, the railroad industry has been able to increasingly compete with the trucking industry by transporting truck trailers "piggyback" on specially designed rail cars. Specially designed equipment has now been installed in major distribution points to physically lift truck trailers on to and off of rail cars at points close to the ultimate delivery destination of the contents of the trailer.
However, despite the increased costs of gasoline and diesel fuel, it is still desirable to be able to transport more than one truck trailer per freight car in order to establish economical freight rates which will induce truckers to use railroad facilities rather than highways. Typically smaller trailers have been transported by rail car because of the limited size of such prior art rail cars. For the larger motor truck trailers that are of a length of approximately 45 feet or more, suitable rail cars for transporting two such large trailers have heretofore not been available.
Accordingly, it would be a desirable advance in the art to provide a rail car capable of transporting two large wheeled vehicular trailers of a size of approximately 45 feet in length with nose mounted refrigeration units.